Remarkably, we're less than five months from Day 1 of the draft, which starts April 23 in Pittsburgh. But plenty can change between now and then. The draft order won't be fully set until mid-February, and the No. 1 pick is up for grabs. The final stretch of the 2025 season, along with all-star events, the combine, pro day workouts and a ton of predraft interviews, will ultimately determine how draft boards will be constructed. But things are starting to take shape.
There was drama in the final week of the regular season. Texas A&M lost its spot in the SEC championship game and its undefeated season with a loss to rival Texas in Austin. And with a chance to go to the ACC title game -- and then perhaps the College Football Playoff -- on the line, SMU lost a squeaker to Cal.
With the exception of teams that will play for their respective conference championship games, the résumés are complete. While there will likely be some shuffling as a result of what happens in the conference championship games, the fifth and penultimate ranking on Tuesday night will be the best indicator all season of which teams should feel comfortable heading into Selection Day -- and who might need some help.
I think that's exactly what it should do for the love they have for coach Wilcox, Rolovich said. That's the best opportunity they have to really celebrate him as their coach.
"When I put the tape on yesterday, I was like 'Wow,'" Reich said. "This is the real deal. This looks like the best team we've played all year. ... It's an opportunity to measure our program against someone like that."
When you go to the ice box Saturday and open that recycled Country Crock container full of what's left from your Aunt Nancy's artichoke casserole, it reminds of you of Thanksgiving dinner and the laughs shared around the table with family and friends. But it also reminds you that Aunt Nancy is a bit off-kilter, because there are actually three butter containers packed with her gluten-free artichoke casserole that no one ate because she fills it with sliced grapes.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart dismissed backup offensive lineman Nyier Daniels on Monday, a day after he was arrested for allegedly driving more than 150 mph while attempting to flee police in Commerce, Georgia. Daniels, from Newark, New Jersey, faces more than a dozen criminal charges and was being held Monday on $21,000 bond in the Jackson County Jail in Jefferson, Georgia.
Briles, 69, has not worked at a college program since being fired as Baylor's head coach in 2016, following a review of the university's handling of sexual assault allegations made against several football players. He since has had two stints coaching for Guelfi Firenze in the Italian Football League, and at Mount Vernon High School in Texas from 2019 to 2020.
FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Colorado State quarterback Darius Curry and offensive lineman Liam Wortmann have been suspended for the Rams' final regular-season game for spitting on Boise State players during the second half of Saturday night's game in Boise, Idaho. A video on social media showed Curry spitting at defensive lineman Jayden Virgin-Morgan, who had blocked Curry while a Boise State player returned what he thought was a live ball on a backward pass that hit the ground.
Amid a year in which chaos has been a near constant, preseason expectations have been turned on their heads and James Franklin has gone from No. 2 in the country at Penn State to splitting the dock fees on a pontoon boat with Bud Foster at Virginia Tech inside of six weeks, we had every right to expect Week 13 might deliver some twists and turns we didn't see coming.
Ohio State wide receivers Carnell Tate and Jeremiah Smith are not expected to play against Rutgers on Saturday due to lower-body injuries, sources told ESPN's Pete Thamel. Tate will miss his third straight game. Smith played in last week's win over UCLA but missed the second half after being seen limping before halftime. Both are considered day-to-day, sources said, ahead of a potential return next week against rival Michigan.
PROVO, Utah -- On the Sunday after BYU's thrilling 24-21 win over rival Utah, a few dozen senior citizens gathered in the courtyard at Jamestown Retirement Community. Two local students and some of their family members put on a concert, with favorites like Brown Eyed Girl, Country Roads and Wagon Wheel played in front of the delighted crowd. Some of those in attendance realized that among the four crooners were BYU teammates Bear and Tiger Bachmeier, who transferred to BYU from Stanford this summer.
Everybody is very clear on what this game means to us, what it means to everybody that's played here before. And what better year to do it than now, at home, with a lot of our fans here? Wright has spent the week reminding younger teammates of the magnitude that surrounds the Big Game and that previous results don't matter after the opening kickoff.
The college football season is teetering between order and chaos. On one hand, we basically have three teams guaranteed a playoff bid at this point (Ohio State, Indiana, Texas A&M) and another few who simply need to win games in which they're heavily favored to wrap things up (Texas Tech, Georgia, Ole Miss, Notre Dame, maybe Alabama). That doesn't leave many open spots.
Stanfield has worked with Travis Hunter, Ryan Williams and Jeremiah Smith. He's painted cleats worn by pros such as Travis Etienne Jr., Emeka Egbuka and Carlos Correa. He's even painted custom Nikes for Caitlin Clark. He's been customizing shoes for six years -- and he just turned 20. What started as a high school hobby has evolved into a successful side hustle. When he's not spray-painting kicks, he's playing wide receiver and taking classes at Houston Christian.
The stands inside Boone Pickens Stadium are brimming with the usual unusual characters. Naturally, the fans in Section 2 NO-SHIRTY 1 are already shirtless. The most popular bananas on campus are here, too. The Kool-Aid Man, of course, is sitting just a few rows over. This is the scene 40 minutes before Oklahoma State's Week 12 visit from Kansas State. Amid the most forlorn season in the Cowboys' modern football history, the Stillwater faithful is coping as best it can this fall, uncovering new methods to mine slivers of joy out of its football misery.
In Week 12, college football said, "You're going to miss me when I'm gone." The results were consequential enough: No. 4 Alabama went down at home in the funkiest fashion imaginable, No. 5 Georgia pulled off a statement win and plenty of aspiring College Football Playoff contenders -- No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 16 Georgia Tech, No. 17 USC, No. 18 Michigan -- narrowly avoided disaster.
The Huskies (8-3) scored a touchdown on their first possession of each half. They took a 6-0 lead in the first quarter on a 10-yard run by Joe Fagnano but a pass for the two-point conversion was incomplete. UConn added a 47-yard field goal by Chris Freeman in the final minute of the second quarter for a 9-7 lead at halftime.
has died from a gunshot wound in a shooting at the school's campus, police said Friday. We are devastated that John Beam our loving husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, coach mentor and friend has passed, his family said in a statement. Our hearts are full from the outpouring of support we are deeply grateful for your continued prayers well wishes and thoughts. He was 66.
Indiana's hiring of Curt Cignetti from James Madison on Nov. 30, 2023, didn't seem seismic or unusual at the time. Other hires in the cycle generated more buzz, both within the Big Ten (Jonathan Smith at Michigan State) and beyond it (Mike Elko at Texas A&M). The January 2024 frenzy that included Kalen DeBoer leaving Washington to replace Nick Saban at Alabama and Michigan promoting Sherrone Moore to replace Jim Harbaugh blew up much more than Cignetti taking the IU job.
sometimes we know in advance who the best quarterbacks will be in a given season. Other times, however, it takes us a little while to figure things out. We headed into 2025 with far less known star power than usual, but even the guys we thought would shine -- Clemson's Cade Klubnik (fourth in the preseason top 100 players list), LSU's Garrett Nussmeier (eighth), Penn State's Drew Allar (17th), South Carolina's LaNorris Sellers (19th),
